The Power Of Prayer 2

You reach down, pick up your Bibles for your seated and wave them around Live stream.

I'm always glad you could be here today.

Let's wave those Bibles around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together, say, heavenly Father, it is getting sweeter every day because of the Word and the Spirit in my life.

You're unlocking secrets, things that have been hidden from many, but they're not hidden from me.

They've been hidden for me to be unlocked and unwrapped.

In these final days I want to walk in revelation, knowledge, so that my faith will grow, that I will shine in a dark world for you, in Jesus' name, amen, praise God, you can be seated.

Let's look at James chapter five.

I want to continue on the power of prayer, which we began last week, and there's.

You know, prayer is a huge subject.

Jesus had much to say about it.

We want to talk a little bit about what he said.

But in James chapter five, which is an end time book, and that's where we are, we're in the end times and I know they began.

The end times began on the day of Pentecost.

Well, that was 2,000 years ago.

You can imagine how late we are in the time clock.

I'm not predicting any particular date I'm just saying it's late.

And James, chapter five, verse 16, the second part of the verse.

And the King James.

It says the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man a valeth much, but I like the amplified the earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man or woman makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working.

And so last week we talked about that power being no less than the resurrection power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him, the same power that raised us from the dead and seated us in him.

That power is the power that's available when we pray and of course, that's implication.

I like to look at the implication of that statement.

The implication is that when there is no prayer made and when our prayer closet is empty, then it creates a power vacuum that will be occupied by the enemy.

You know, a lot of times, you know, in the past, you know, I've known Christians just to kind of get fixated on God allowed God, god permitted God, this God, this, all up to God.

Well, no, it's really up to you.

And you didn't take it.

Really, if the truth be known, you didn't take your place in prayer.

Because if you had, I'm not saying prayer will prevent trials.

It won't prevent everything from hitting you, but it will keep it from being a surprise.

Or, if it does come, you are not surprised and you're not caught unaware.

At least you have been built up in your prayer life.

I mean great power, you know, we talked about this last week, john Wesley it seems that God is limited by our prayer life.

He can do nothing unless someone prays.

John Wesley, the great revivalist, who, out of the Methodist church oh how far they've fallen.

I mean, every one of the main line denominations came out of a revival and all of every one of the main line denominations, every one of them, has departed from the faith.

If I was a Methodist, I'd get out now.

I was a Catholic, I'd get out.

When are you gonna wait?

Why are you waiting?

Catholics I mean, you've got a Marxist as a pope.

Why are you there?

Why are you still listening to that?

I'm a Catholic, you know, ex-catholic, I grew up, you know, and all that.

And thank God, god delivered me, I got saved.

I'm not saying all Catholics are lost.

I'm not saying that.

I know a lot of good Catholics that are saved.

Why are you still sitting in that sepulcher?

Get out of there so you can learn something about the Bible, learn something about your faith, amen, anyway.

So these great revivalists, they got a hold and he said you know people.

He said you know I pray at least two hours every morning.

You know his custom, john Wesley, his custom pray for two hours every morning.

And he said if I've got a particularly trying day, a particularly busy day, I pray three hours.

I mean, you know he just turned up the prayer heat.

He just turned it up, he spent more time in his prayer closet.

Are you with me now?

And depending on supernatural power, the power that's released when we know how to pray and we talked about this, like James, chapter four, verses one through four, you know James said earlier in this end time book, he said you know you have not because you ask not, or else you have not because you ask amiss, and so when we see the word ask, we almost always substitute the word beg.

Really, I mean, that's the, that's most people's idea of prayer, not your, not your idea.

I'm listening, I'm teaching you what I take for granted.

You know, god kind of rebuked me a few years ago after we moved in this building.

I, you know.

He said you know you need to teach what you take for granted, and I got to looking at some of the messages that I preached up to now and I had some pretty good messages, but some of them were just.

They could have been just left off, because I'm not running a Bible school here.

I need to get information into you that will give you victory in your everyday life.

Well, I've heard this before.

Well, hear it again, because you need it.

We're living in the last days.

I mean, the devil's not playing around.

He's trying to pick people off and he picks people off that let things slip.

And then we have new people that come from every kind, some of them.

We've got some Baptists that have started coming.

We've got some Catholics that started coming.

They need what we take for granted.

Maybe they haven't heard how to pray.

Maybe they ought to come tonight, because we're going to pray tonight corporately for our nation and for our state and for other things.

Tonight Be a good way to preach.

You know Jesus preached.

You know he talked by precept and example, but we talked about this last week.

You ask amiss.

The word ask actually means to make a demand.

So every time you see what Jesus said ask and it shall receive.

Seek and you shall find Knock and you shall open up to you.

Well, that word ask also means require, it means make a demand.

It doesn't mean beg.

When it says continue, I mean to ask and keep on asking.

No, you don't.

You ask once.

That's another dumb thing that people do.

Oh Jesus, I need a new car, I need a new car.

I need a new car, I need a new car.

Well, you have needs, right?

You don't just keep asking for the same need every day.

You ask the first time and then, well, it says to come a continually come in praise, ask once in praise until it shows up Praising.

That's what's continued, the prayer of praise, not the prayer of supplication.

You pray that you're asking for something that you need, that's fine.

But then, believe you receive.

When, when you pray, you believe you receive and then you shall have it's on the way.

So what do you do?

You praise him every day that you still don't have the new car or the next car or whatever you're believing for.

Then you praise him every day until it shows up.

That's faith in action.

So we'll see in anticipation.

I can't believe.

He's pertinent to money already.

Yeah, everything's money, Everything.

That's one of the resources we have.

We have our time, we have our money, we have our.

You know our lives.

Amen, all right.

And prayer is not trying to get God's attention.

It's trying to get God to do something.

Amen, that's not what prayer is.

Prayer is communicating with God.

You know, in Thessalonians it talks about the Cornania, you know, fellowship of the Holy Ghost.

The word fellowship means cornea, it means partnership.

That's what prayer.

Prayer is joining forces with God.

God created man to have fellowship and the first rattle out of the box.

Adam did what Slipped out, slipped out and slipped up and gave everything that he had to the devil by obeying the devil.

And then it wrecked God's whole plan to have fellowship with someone he made.

Remember Genesis?

It says let us make a man just like ourselves.

So we're made in the image and lightness of God.

We're made and we're not God, but we're in the God class and we are capable of having Cornania or partnership, our fellowship with God, almighty.

And then the first purpose was ruptured and wrecked by the devil in the garden because his man disobeyed him.

But God was not caught unaware.

He had Jesus ready to go, ready to go, and Jesus redeemed us by his blood and he restored the lost fellowship.

And so where is?

Or we as believers, now that there's no blockages?

There are no, there's nothing standing in our way to have fellowship with God Almighty, an interchange, a communication, a partnership.

We're partners with God and sons, unlimited.

We come into the throne room around the table where big decisions are made.

If you get more mature, you get in prayer, the more God will leave things up to you.

You will ask what you will and it'll be done.

Now we're not independent from God, but I'm saying we get to know him so well that we know what he wants.

And we, just we take advantage and we make demands.

Who do we demand from God like this?

No, the demand is just simply.

It's not emotional, it's a we're requiring on the basis of God's word, on the basis of our covenant and our knowledge of it.

Are y'all with me now?

Prayer secrets?

And so the result of word-based, spirit led prayers, tremendous power being released.

I don't care how difficult, I don't care how impossible something looks, it has to yield to that power that's released through effective, fervent prayer, amen.

And the continued part is not praying over and over the same thing, but thanking God again, thanking God.

See, that's the prayer of praise that goes along with your prayer.

To begin with, it's not by vain repetition, and a bunch of you're not heard by your many words.

Amen, are y'all with me now?

So let's look here.

Today.

I want to continue Luke 18 and let's see what Jesus said about prayer.

And so powerful.

How many of you know that Jesus knew a little bit about prayer?

Amen, here he is, god, and yet he had to pray.

Why did he have to pray?

Because he came here not as God.

He came here as our representative.

He came here as a man and on it of God, and so he gave us a pattern to follow.

And in Luke 18, verse one, he spoke a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint.

And I like to amplify not turn coward, lose heart and give up.

Men ought always to pray.

And what that tells me, when we don't pray, that's what happens we turn coward, lose heart and give up.

I've known preachers that gave up their church and just backslid and wind up in bars and doing what they did when they got saved.

And here they went all the way around, from standing up on a pulpit and preaching to others to get discouraged and retreating all the way to the bar stool.

You know why they did it?

Because they didn't occupy the place of prayer.

They turned coward and they gave up.

Jesus said don't do that, Don't do it.

So it tells me that it's possible to do it, even if you're saved, even if you're a Christian.

It's easy to just, especially right now, in the onslaught of the lies and the outright garbage that's coming forth everywhere, on every direction.

20% of the nation's churches are closed and that's it.

They're gone.

They probably needed to.

I don't think there's any big loss.

Somebody that would close during a pandemic and then just not be able to open they didn't have much anyway, pastor.

That's so mean.

Well, it's just the facts.

I'm not here to give you the facts.

It's a lack of prayer.

What do we do?

Well, we listened to the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost said I want you to dedicate a whole month to healing, and before we could get that on the schedule it was February 1st.

So every Wednesday night in February we preached on healing.

And we didn't preach on the miracles.

We preached on healing because 12 out of 19 healing miracles in the Bible mentioned faith.

So we were building your faith and so then on Sunday morning I just went ahead and transferred a lot because it's such a big subject.

So we had what was it?

Eight messages on, and then we culminated all of that the end of February on a healing service.

We're going to have another healing service coming up.

We're Houston's Healing Center.

We have miracles, we have wonderful miracles, but a lot of the miracles we have are because people's faith is built up and they know what belongs to them.

That's the most important way to get healed.

If you get healed because of a healing meeting, then you might, and it wasn't your faith.

You know the atmosphere in a healing meeting is real hot, it's easy.

It's real easy.

You know, back in the fifties and forties and fifties they had a healing revival.

Oral Roberts and you know all these one Jack Co and all these different healing ministries rose up and they had tents.

Thousands, maybe even millions of people got not only saved but healed.

But many of them lost their healing because they got healed in the, in the anointing, and they really didn't have any faith in their own heart and they went back to their dead church that didn't teach healing.

In fact they taught that miracles had passed away, healing had been done away with.

When you know part of God's name is Jehovah Rafa, the Lord of the healer.

He hadn't changed his name.

As far as I know, god is the same yesterday and today and forever.

I'm the Lord.

I changed not.

So if healing passed away, then God changed his name, has he changed his name?

How stupid is that?

Why would you get healed in a meeting like Oral Roberts, for instance, and then go back to some dead church that tells you that garbage.

And so then the devil steals their healing, and then and then, and then the whole message is well, you know, we just it was an emotional response, I really wasn't healed.

I know, really, is that where you really weren't healed?

Oh, wow.

And so the whole thing becomes another weapon for the devil to use against us.

Amen, let's not be that way.

So what did we do?

We got our vaccination ahead of time.

I mean, when this thing hit, we had the faith corporately to open right back up after 15 days.

God told me give the president 15 days.

Then we opened up on Palm Sunday.

We've been open ever since, twice a week, hugging everybody, shaking everybody's hands.

None of this stuff, none of this stuff we hug.

I had a visitor in just a couple of weeks after we opened.

Come up and kiss me on the cheek.

A Baptist woman kissed me on the cheek, glad this wasn't watching.

I'm glad she wasn't watching.

I didn't melt, I'd already been vaccinated.

We do the natural things, of course.

We do the natural things that we can do, but we don't trust in all that stuff.

So he said that men are always to pray and not to faint.

And then he talks about this woman.

There was in a city a judge feared not God, neither regarded man.

Now, that's not God.

See, that's not comparing God to an unjust judge.

God is just.

Are you with me now?

But listen to what he's saying.

This is Jesus speaking.

It's in red.

I didn't say it, he said it.

There was this man and there was a widow in that city and she came unto him saying a vengeance of my adversaries, in other words, vindicate me.

I've got a cause against this enemy of mine.

He has cheated me.

You know, I paid for new pipes after the freeze and he put in plastic instead of copper and I want satisfaction.

And so hit Now.

Remember this is an unjust judge.

This is a guy that's on the pay, he's on the take, like a lot of our, our modern department of justice people.

There's a department of injustice.

There's no justice anymore, it's just a department of injustice.

Amen, all right.

And so, and he would not for a while, he said no, go, pound sand lady, I'm getting glad.

He said I want to know where is that?

That's the Griner translation of.

But anyway, he would not avenge her.

She had a cause and he wouldn't avenge her, he wouldn't vindicate her, he wouldn't judge correctly, and so, uh, and then he would not for a while.

But after what he said within himself self, he said, though I fear not, though I fear not God.

They just like modern judges that we have on the Supreme court that said that they're fear God, they don't fear God, they're losers.

All but Thomas and Alito.

The rest of them, let's just check them off our list.

And he said, though I fear not God, nor regard man.

I do exactly what I feel like doing, and especially those who contribute to my reelection campaign, those are the ones that get the favorite in my court.

This lady doesn't give me anything, but because this widow trouble with me.

The word trouble means to beat him black and blue.

Look it up for yourself in the Greek.

Is she physically going to beat him?

Black and blue?

Of course not.

But her intensity, her shameless persistence, she's not going away, and neither are we.

We're not going away.

They want us to leave.

Well, we're not leaving yet, buddy boy.

We've got a whole harvest to reap yet and we're going to be here in your face every day.

We're going to be praying and crying against the stuff you're doing.

Oh, where did it go?

We're leaving them.

Black and blue.

That's what Jesus said.

I didn't say it.

People are just too polite.

We don't get polite in prayer.

We don't get violent in prayer.

All right, because she troubled with me, I will avenge her.

Let's buy her continual coming.

She weary me.

Weary again means to box, to beat.

I mean.

He likened it to physical assault.

I don't know.

I'm not talking about physical assault.

We don't physically assault people.

We don't break the law.

We might disobey the law like civil disobedience, but I'm talking about violence now.

Violence is not ever right.

And so the Lord said hear what the unjust judge said.

Pay attention to that.

He's talking right.

He's lost.

He doesn't fear me, but he fears this little woman that knows who she is and what she's got coming, and she's not going to give up till she gets it, and he doesn't want to be black and blue waiting and denying her.

Hear what the unjust judge said.

And shall not God, now he switches over to his heavenly Father?

And shall not God avenge his own elect vindicate?

We're not being vindicated.

Our causes are not being heard.

Our lawsuits are being dismissed.

The Supreme Court is not doing its job, but I'll tell you somebody that is doing his job, and that's our Heavenly Father.

He is the righteous judge.

Are y'all with me now?

Yes, shall not God avenge His own elect, which cried day and night.

Well, is it day and night?

Are we crying the same thing over and over again?

Or are we praising Him for what he is doing for us?

In the face of all the evidence to the contrary, I think the next thing that we need to do is just start praising God a little bit more for what he's doing.

He's doing things behind the scenes that we don't know anything about.

Angels are being activated.

I read an old prophecy Brother Hagin gave.

Just in fact, I was in that meeting in the Winter Bible Seminar in 1999, just the next month after Brother Osteen went to heaven.

I went to Winter Bible Platisthenes because I had in my spirit that he was.

Brother Hagin was leaving too and in that meeting he received another three years, which turned into four years, watched it happen on the platform.

Holy Ghost came on him and he's a big man and he sat straight down on the platform.

He's out of it in a trance and just talking to Jesus and everybody's going what?

And they lifted him up, put him on a chair and he just started prophesying and started talking to Jesus.

Yes, your Lord, okay.

And I heard God give him more years.

So I was right, he was headed to heaven.

But God had more things for him to do and he kept traveling.

And what was he doing?

He was bringing demonstration of the spirit into his churches Amen.

Pastor Osteen said you know, john, I can't get Brother Hagin to come back.

I said well, he's busy in his churches.

He said God.

I said God alerted him that his churches have departed from the Holy Ghost.

They're word churches, word, word, word, word, and they don't let the Holy Ghost move, they're word of faith Baptist.

Brother Osteen Told him that on a trip to India.

I don't mind telling you in public because it's true.

And so he was going around and bringing a demonstration of the Holy Ghost moving in a service.

And if you've never seen that, that will come in July.

We'll have Brother and Sister Hankins here.

They bring a demonstration, we bring a demonstration Come Sunday night.

I don't know.

We're supposed to pray tonight, but what happens, I don't know.

It's up to the Holy Ghost.

We might run around the church, I don't know Whatever.

And so he said shall not God avenge his own language?

Cry day and night unto him, though he bear along with them.

See, sometimes God schedules, not our schedule, and we have to hold on.

We can't turn coward, give up.

Smith Wigglesworth said his experience was Christians give up too soon.

The answer's on the way and then they just let go, they just ah, well, I guess it isn't God's will.

Yeah, it was God's will.

Are y'all with me?

Now?

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, will he find faith on the earth?

There's a definition of faith Faith doesn't quit, faith doesn't turn coward, faith never stops.

Now I don't mean going on and on.

Go God, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me to me right now.

I'm not talking about that kind of silliness.

I'm talking about praying one time and then believe, you receive, and you shall have.

Mark 11, 24.

What things to ever you desire when you pray?

Believe you receive them and you shall have them.

That's what the Bible says, that's what Jesus said.

That's faith.

So when we pray, we believe we receive and then we shall have.

Receiving is when, when you get it, no, when you pray.

Because why?

Because when you pray in faith, you know you have that thing.

Hold your thought.

Turn to 1st John, chapter five.

I want to see the Bible.

You start reading your Bible correctly and see that's your prayer life has to be, has to be dependent on your Bible reading.

This is the problem of a lot of people's prayer life.

It's detached from God's word.

God's word is His will All right.

1st John, chapter five, verse 14,.

And this is the confidence that we have in Him or concerning Him.

Talking about God, that if we ask anything according to His will, he heareth us.

That word ask also can mean make a demand or require.

It's not necessarily begging.

Are you with me now?

Same Greek word all the way through.

If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.

Here's the mistake people do.

They say well, lord, if it be, thy will give me a new car and if not, let me keep dragging this fender-flapping piece of junk stuck on the side of the freeway.

I've got $1,000 worth of towing fees just last month.

But, lord, we know it's your will.

I just humble myself, I'm just humbling, you're humbling me.

God hasn't permitted me to have another car.

He doesn't want.

He wants me to walk to work.

I'm going to try to walk to work next week.

Of course I will 35 miles.

I don't know how I'm going to do that.

I know I'll move closer.

Oh, it's downtown.

Oh, okay, well, maybe not.

No, you don't need.

That's not what that means.

It means when you pray, you pray from an understanding of what His will is.

There's no point in praying if you don't know what His will is.

Now you need to pray in the Holy Ghost for a while.

You know, I loved Brother Copeland years ago.

He was teaching along these lines.

He said you know, most Christians just attack a need in the flesh and they go right to God in prayer and they go too soon.

They go emotionally, they go on need-based and they don't take any time in prayer to find out what God said about the need they have.

And then you know sometimes the need you have is not really in the Bible.

So you know you've got to find out whether you're eligible, whether it's God's will for you to have that thing.

That's not written specifically.

For instance, you know it's not written specifically, lady, that you're to marry Charlie over here.

Charlie looks like a good husband.

You got your eyes set and so you claim him as your husband.

Do you even know what Charlie's life is like?

Do you know what God knows about Charlie?

If you knew what God knows about Charlie, you wouldn't be claiming him for a husband.

So that's what I mean, in other words, letting your eyes and your flesh govern what you're asking God for or what you're claiming God for.

I knew a lady one time years ago when I first got saved.

We were having a Bible study and I lived in a neighborhood where I built homes and I had friends of mine that built homes in there and one builder that I knew particularly at this house sitting up on the market for over a year sitting.

I mean, the grass was growing, he didn't mow his grass often enough, had to sign out in the yard and this lady showed up at our prayer meeting.

She wasn't a regular attender, she was.

I won't say who she was, but anyway I guess I knew her by reputation and her husband and they were there to kind of teach the Bible study that week and she was talking to the lady that was hosting the Bible study and she said I've already claimed that house.

I went by and claimed it, it's mine, I'm just going to claim it and I'll tell you and I know I'm going to get it real cheap because he's desperate and I thought you know that's witch here.

I'm a baby Christian and I heard her the way she approached that man's livelihood.

You know he built that house.

He deserves a payday and she's claiming it.

And that house finally got foreclosed on.

She didn't get it, she tied it up.

It was witchcraft.

God showed me that.

I had just gotten to say I didn't know that much about it.

But I knew that was wrong.

I knew that God could, the God that I served, couldn't possibly sanction that kind of prayer where you would claim something you don't have any right to.

You don't even have the means to buy that house.

It's way above what you would be willing to pay anyway, you expect just stuff to fall in your lap just because you say so, and so that's just witchcraft, that's not prayer.

So, again, you've got to know what God's with.

And now if she had said you know what I'm going to pray about, what to pray about, that concern?

I like that house.

I don't know if God will give it to me or not and you're praying tongues for a couple of months or six months or something, and you'll finally hear what God has to say about it.

Keep looking.

It's probably what God would have said if he'd have had a chance.

Is anybody getting anything out of this?

I feel like I'm way off my notes.

We need to know how to pray.

These are critical, dangerous times.

It's too dangerous for us not to know what God's perspective is on everything that we're facing.

Let's not assume we know.

Let's know, we know.

And the only way we can know we know is prayer.

Are y'all with me?

So, instead of rushing into something with just flesh and your puny peanut brain and claiming something, let's process the plan of God and let's pray about what to pray about and let's see what really belongs to us.

And then, when we know what belongs to us, then we can claim it by faith.

Are y'all?

Is this helping you?

And so he said this is a confidence we have in concerning God that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us.

And we know that if he hears us, whatever we ask, we know we have the petition that we desired of Him.

We know it.

That's why we only pray one time and we believe we received it right when we prayed.

Why?

Because we didn't rush headlong into that prayer, we didn't just blow through the door oh God, gimme, gimme, gimme.

No, we waited and we found out what belonged to us.

And then we used a lot of times we needed to construct a reasoned prayer, similar to what a lawyer would submit to the Supreme Court.

You know, when Ted Cruz goes before the Supreme Court, he doesn't go in there loosen his tie, scream, holler, lay on the floor, kick on the floor, kick the table where they're seated, overturn the chairs, get all violent.

No, he has a reasoned argument, my argument.

I don't mean fist hanging and I'm talking about a presentation.

So much Now.

This comes from Pope Copeland.

Yeah, 40 years ago I heard it.

I mean, it helped me.

It helped me 40 years later.

When we come to God.

Let's have a presentation.

Let's show Him, once we know what belongs to us.

Let's present why we're asking or why we're requiring that thing.

Is this helping anybody today?

It's not a motion.

I said it's not a motion.

That word ask, see, it's in these verses.

I just got through reading All through the New Testament, in the epistles, in the Gospels.

It has that word ask and every time it's used it means also to require or to make a demand.

You know, in the old days checks used to have on the check face when you wrote a check.

People don't write checks much anymore, but you write lots of checks into the church.

We've received those.

Praise God for those.

But a lot of people give online.

A lot of people give on debit card, whatever.

However you give, just give, be a giver.

But anyway it used to say pay on demand and you would put the person that you're writing the check to.

He's the payee.

You that signed the check is the payer and so that money is in your account.

So when the payee arrives at the bank, you see.

So one time I had a house that was under construction.

It was brand, it was almost.

It was thoroughly finished.

Basically, all I had left to do was punch out stuff.

The light fixtures were in it, the appliances were in it, the air conditioning hadn't been set outside.

I usually didn't do that until people were getting ready to move in.

It wasn't sold yet, but I had somebody that wanted to buy it and the contract was presented to me and I went over to meet them and look at the contract and we arrived at the price.

But then they wanted a whole bunch of changes.

Well, this house is finished and they want a pink bedroom upstairs and they want to tear out the you know this and alter that.

And it was a lot of work.

I hate remodeling.

That's why I'm a new home builder.

Remodeling is fine for people that are.

Some people are anointed to be remodellers and they do a great job.

I just not in that.

It's a different business.

It's a different subcontract.

I knew what they wanted me to do.

I had to get everybody back through the house.

I had to get the trim gardener back in there, the painter, the sheet rocker, the electrician, on and on and on.

All these different subs have to go back in there for a little dab.

And so I went through and walked through the house and I said, well, I said what you're asking for me to do is you're asking me to do $32,000 worth of changes on my house.

It's my house till the day you sign at the closing table.

And I said this contract that you're giving me is contingent upon you.

You know, being able to qualify for the loan, right, and the realtor was there, their realtor was there.

Oh, they're perfectly qualified.

I said, well, I'm not doubting that, I'm just saying I have no control over it.

And I said so.

If, for any reason, something happens, you're asking me to underwrite the purchase of this house with my money $32,000 out of my pocket and I don't have $32,000 laying around in my bank account to do this work, and they're not going to loan it to me because it's over and above my construction loan and what I do have is construction loan interest that's due every month until they close.

And so what I'm saying is you want this house.

You're going to write me a check, not the title company, not this realtor.

You're going to write my company a check for $32,000, right here on the spot, and then I will sign the contract and I'll get started on the changes that you make.

And if you don't close.

I'll have enough money in there to change it back if I need to.

And I probably have to change pink paint.

I have to repaint that because there's not many people that want pink paint.

No offense, I realize you want that, that's for you.

But I mean this spec doesn't have pink.

No pink in the spec.

And so, to the realtor's horror, the guy said, yeah, absolutely no problem, sat down I mean there was no chair, but he'd been over the bar and wrote the check out to my company, gave me the check and I signed the contract.

She was kind of mad.

I said, okay, well, we'll be ready to go and it did close, you know.

So I'm shaking, you know, as they leave, I'm looking for $32,000.

Boy, I needed that money so bad.

The Holy Ghost gave me the plan.

What did I have?

I had walk away power.

I didn't get my eyes on the sale.

I wasn't so desperate to take a silly sale and then hurt myself and take on a big load of financial load.

You mean you pray?

No, I just in my spirit, I've stayed in contact with God and I can know how to maneuver in situations that are tight like that.

Is this helping anybody?

I didn't drop down on my knees, hold on, I need to pray and see what God's will is.

I knew what God's will is.

God's will was for me to get blessed and my family to have their money and pay our bills.

That was God's will.

And so I had this check.

So it was written on a Houston bank.

It wasn't very far, you know, a couple of miles from where I was building West University Place, and so I drove in my car and I rolled up in the parking lot.

I thought now, how am I going to cash this check?

You know, it's going to be kind of dicey.

It's made out to my company.

So I had my company checkbook, you know, and I had a card that says I'm the president of my company with my name on it, and I had a driver's license.

The Holy Ghost, just you know, just showed me what to do.

I just walked in there with my checkbook, my checkbook, that check and my ID.

I walked up to the teller.

I said I'd like to cash this check and turn it into a cashier's check made payable to my company.

And she started blubbering and stuttering and blinking and I said well, hold on, let me just show you who I am.

And then here's my checkbook.

See the checkbook, see the balance.

You know, it's all the checkbook.

And here's my card.

I'm the president of the company.

This is my company.

And here's my driver's license.

You can put all that information down.

And she called her supervisor over and they conferred.

And finally she says you want a cashier's check, right?

Yes, okay, is this the company?

Yes, just make it out to the company, right?

Here's the company.

And I walked out of that bank with a $32,000 cashier's check which I put in my bank and they gave me instant credit for it in my banking.

Are y'all with me now?

This is a picture of what it means to make a demand.

I did not fall on my face and throw a tantrum in the bank.

I didn't slam my fist down on the marble counter and say I demand my money.

This is my money right now.

They had to do what they had to check to see if the check was good, and they did that first.

Then they had to check to see are you who you say you are?

And they did that.

That's the same thing we go through when we pray.

I mean God is waiting for you to offer evidence that you know who you are in Him.

He loves it when you bring His word to Him.

He loves it when you remind Him of what he said.

Oh, he's so honored to give you that thing that you're demanding.

Oh, come on, let's lift our hands right now.

Glory to God, whoo.

Let's look at Romans, chapter eight.

Are you getting anything out of this today?

Oh, I want to encourage you.

I know some of you have been you know, quote unquote believing for a long time.

But are you really believing?

Scripturally believing?

Wishing and hoping is not believing.

Praying the same thing over and over, going around the mountain over and over and over again oh God, save my child, save him, oh God, save him.

You're not praying right.

There's no faith with that.

That's not the way to pray for your lost loved ones.

You're not taking God's word to Him.

Let me ask you this Is it God's will for every person on the planet to be saved?

Because if you can't say yes to that, the devil is going to tell you that your child is the exception.

It's not God's will.

He's done too many bad things.

She's done too many bad things.

Can't be saved just too late.

That's what the devil will tell you, and what does that do to you?

It makes you give up, makes you, you know, turn coward and stop and stop really praising God for their salvation.

No, you've got to know, you've got to know, so you know.

Instead of running headlong into an emotional prayer like that, let's find out.

How does God work?

Well, god's word says that they're blinded 2 Corinthians 10,.

They're blinded by the God of this age.

It's blinded their mind, and they can't receive the glorious gospel of Christ.

So use your authority.

You're seated at the right hand of God.

You have authority.

Everything's under your feet.

You use your prayer armor.

You've got your prayer armor on and you get into that prayer closet and you say devil, I bind you over my son, I break your assignment over his life.

I demand you stop blinding his mind to the gospel.

And now, father, you just said, pray laborers in the path.

Lord, I pray laborers, angels, go and find the proper laborer for my child and that will come along and give them the good news.

And, god, I thank you for opening their heart to receive your glorious gospel and I claim their salvation and deliverance right now, in Jesus' name.

And never you, ever, you never ask God again to save your child every time you think about your child, you lift your hands and say, oh, father, I thank you.

Glory to God, my child is saved.

I see him living for God.

I see him serving God Hallelujah, they say.

When you do that and you keep doing it every day, every day, shall not God avenge his own elect, though he bear along with them.

Sometimes it's not on our schedule, but they're gonna come one way or the other.

They're gonna come easier or they're gonna come harder.

That's the.

You gotta have that attitude as a parent.

I was there at Lakewood.

Dr Roy Hicks was preaching along these lines.

He said some of you just pray the blessing over your kids all the time.

You need to stop that.

They're not motivated to get saved.

You just keep paving the way for them to be lost.

They can't even see the goodness of God because you've prayed it down on top of their head.

Boy, they on.

I thought they were gonna be all right.

They were so mad.

They complained about him.

They didn't like what he was preaching.

Well, he was preaching the truth.

I mean, do you want your kids blessed or do you want to get them saved?

Oh, I thought that.

No, you know, sometimes I'm not saying you curse your children.

I'm just saying pray in the Holy Ghost After you've claimed their salvation.

When you do, pray for them, pray in the Holy Ghost and quit just trying to make it as if they're serving God when they're not.

For instance, if your kid is a drug addict and you pray more money, what are you just gonna?

They're gonna just get more drugs.

Stop praying your emotions and your brain tissue over your children.

Pray the word.

Are y'all with me now, maybe?

Well, you can't vote me out because you didn't hire me.

All right.

So we want your children saved, we want everybody saved.

It can be saved, all right.

Romans 8, 26.

I want you to see this, and it's so important.

I'll probably close with this part, verse 26.

Likewise, the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for, as we ought.

We know not what to pray for, as we ought.

You see why?

Well, because we often pray again from incomplete knowledge.

We don't see what God sees, we don't have his perspective, yet we don't know really the proper way.

We learn the hard way not to pray emotional prayers, not to just run headlong into situations and pray everything that we think should be prayed.

That's our own thinking, but God has a different perspective.

How can we not do that?

He's fixing to tell you the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what to pray for, as we ought.

But the Holy Spirit itself or Himself maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered and one version says, in intelligible speech.

In other words, with groanings and praying in tongues.

It's not necessarily getting on the carpet and weeping and crying.

I know people that get off in the Spirit and they have groanings and that's correct.

That can happen in our intercession.

But it's not what this verse is necessarily talking about.

It's really talking about praying in other tongues.

So I call it processing the plan of God.

I call it, instead of attacking a situation with our brain tissue and with our emotions, our soulless realm and our five senses, and constructing a prayer based on that.

We don't know how to pray as we ought or what to pray for as we should, and but the Holy Spirit helpeth our infirmities, our feebleness of body or mind.

It's a malady, it's a moral frailty, it's disease, infirmities, sickness and weakness.

So not only does it mean sickness and weakness physically, but it means mentally deficient.

We don't know, and yet we're gonna pray.

It's impossible to have pray in faith because you don't know faith.

Faith begins where the will of God is known and you don't have anything but a vague idea of what you think God might want.

And you're not sure, and so you go headlong into praying for it for years and years and years.

Why has it never been?

Well, because God does not move by need, he doesn't move by emotion.

He moves only by faith in His word.

So we don't know how to pray as we ought.

So what do we do?

Pray in the Holy Ghost.

We pray in the Holy Ghost for a while.

We pray until we do know.

And so when I start praying about something, I say God, I'm gonna process the plan of God according to Romans 8, 26.

I don't know exactly how to pray about this situation, but I want your perspective on it.

I'm committed to following your perfect will in this matter.

I'm not gonna pray my will in it.

I'm gonna pray your will in it when it's time to pray, but until then I'm gonna pray in the Holy Ghost.

I walk up and down in my prayer closet and I pray.

My prayer closet is kind of big.

I like to walk, and so you know it's not a closet.

In other words, it just means a private place.

Sometimes my prayer closet's out on my patio.

I just built a brand new one.

It's huge.

Every time I go out there, I just like it I sprinkle water all over it.

It's the blood of Jesus.

I plead the blood all over my patio because that's where I hear from God sometimes.

And it's cold.

You know it's the time of year.

You know you get out there and it's kind of cold.

Well, I got shades and I got a screen.

It goes down on the front side, on the side, and all the wind cuts off.

And if it's really cold I'll just light the fire and my little fire pit thing.

And you know I sit out there and just pray in the Holy Ghost, walk up and down on my beautiful imported Italian travertine floor.

You got travertine.

You're really my patio's nicer than my house.

I'm thinking about putting a window unit in the window.

I've got windows on one wall.

I think I'm gonna put a window unit out there because it gets really hot in summer time.

And now I got those shades.

I shade the west sun on there.

Are you bragging?

I'm just talking about God.

I just love what God does.

God does stuff for me.

He blesses my socks off and it's taken a long time.

You know he look.

Matthew seven, come on, let's back over here.

Matthew seven Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus talked about God as a father.

He was talking to them as the only prophet they'd had at 400 years before John the Baptist.

Now John the Baptist is fading out, jesus is taking over and Jesus is talking to them and he's talking about God on the Sermon of the Mount.

And they heard things they'd never heard, they didn't know.

I mean, those Jewish people, man they were.

They were just wow.

And he said in verse seven ask.

And it shall be same word.

Same ask is all the other time.

It also means make a requirement, make a demand on your covenant, ask.

And then in the Greek it means ask and keep on asking.

It's in that tense.

Well, you make the again, you make a.

You don't keep asking the same thing.

You ask it once and praise him.

If you don't get anything else out of what I'm saying today, get that.

Quit asking over and over and over again.

Praise him, ask one time, praise, praise, praise, asking.

It shall be given.

You see, asking, god will think about giving it to you, asking, maybe it'll be given to you.

Seek and you might find, knock and he'll slam the door shut.

You'll double latch it.

Yeah, for some of my favorites that asks receive, and only born again, only only ministers can seek and find.

No, everyone, everyone that asks receive, he that seeks finds him that knocks it shall be open.

What man is there of you Whom, if your son asked bread, would he give him a stone?

Or if he asked for fish, would he give him a snake?

If you then, being evil or natural fathers, know how to give good gifts under your children, how much more Everybody shout?

How much more, how much more Shout your father, which is in heaven?

Give good things to them that ask, or to them that make a requirement To them who know what belongs to them, and then just simply say you know, that's what I need, lord.

I know in my heart this belongs to me.

Thank you, praise the Lord.

He gets good things, he gets good.

Everybody say good things.

And so then Jesus went ahead and said it again in Mark 11, 24, what things so ever you desire when you pray?

He didn't say what I.

What things so ever I desire when you pray he said you desire.

Well, you're not gonna say you desire it until you know that God's perspective has said it belongs to you.

I don't want anything that doesn't belong to me, do you?

What do you call people who take things that don't belong to them?

Are you gonna take sickness?

No, because it doesn't belong to us.

I mean, we would be wrong to take sickness when it doesn't belong to us, right?

No, we're gonna throw, we're gonna put a wall up on that and we're not gonna take anything at.

Well.

But you know, and I think sometimes when we start praying about things and we've processed the plan of God before we come rushing headlong, we have desires to begin with.

So we're disciplining ourselves to wait and not just go on desire alone.

Let's wait and see what God's perspective is.

I give you two quick examples.

So, oh, I guess in the 90s it seemed like every preacher I knew got a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

I even sold seed to help a church buy a preacher a brand new Harley road king At that time, about a 15 or $16,000 motorcycle.

And we sold seed because I was really and I hadn't asked the Lord yet though, I just was, I was just my desire, hadn't even broached it, I hadn't even prayed, I knew better.

I just I just waited.

And then I, you know, brought a Harley magazine.

I went by the Harley data sat on a couple of them.

I tried it out, you know, and I kept getting more attracted and more attracted.

And then another preacher got one.

Another preacher, of course Copeland had these motorcycle rallies all the time, but they don't have Harleys, they have Hondas.

You know, that's kind of boring.

No offense, I mean, if you're going to go cross country and all that, that's more.

You know, probably better Harley's loud and vibrates and everything.

But I love the sound of a Harley.

I've always loved, you know.

You just hear one rev up and they're just like music to my ears.

I really wanted one, but I didn't ask for one, I didn't put it in prayer yet, I just waited and, you know, and I didn't even really go as far as even process the plan of God by praying in the Holy Ghost.

So one day I'd spent the lab probably hit reach the $200 mark of magazines and $5 or $6 apiece times.

However many 50 magazines stacked up and I'm looking at that magazine one day and the Holy Ghost said you can't have a Harley and I said, yes, sir, and just like that I killed that idea.

I threw all those magazines in trash and those preachers started falling over Rodney Howard Brown fall off his motorcycle and the head of the one that I paid, that I sold money into.

He fell off that motorcycle at the head of his drive where he, you know, he was going 10 to 15 miles an hour and he showed up to preach an umbility.

He was skinned up, he had to preach in a t-shirt and shorts because he's had, you know, just all his hide skinned off.

And I thought, well, I guess, god, you knew that I, I'm kind of liking that category, I'm not balanced, challenged on that.

So you know, sometimes God will give you his perspective, and if you'll just stay out of the flesh, god.

But then you know another time after that how many of you are bored out of your mind.

And you'd like me to end this thing right now before I give you another testimony.

Okay, come on, go, like this, like a little dog.

Come on, beg me.

No, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding Brother, those things used to do that.

And so come on, beg me.

They're laughing because they're over there.

Anyway, so in 2005, general Motors Chevrolet division came out with a sixth generation Corvette and I did.

I was smitten, I mean, I was absolutely smitten, and I thought, oh, oh, oh, oh, this is beautiful.

Oh man, I have one of these.

And because it looked like the 2005 was a different year, model, sixth generation, and it looked like the third, the C3, the third generation, which was always my favorite.

They were made in 63 through 67.

If you want to know the split window Corvette, I had a model when I was a kid of that and I used to do model cars and paint them and customize them and all that.

It's a rear window has got a split in the middle and two windows.

This still sits alone and it gets the biggest money at the auctions.

So, and this Corvette reminded me that they had kind of a retro look to it and I loved it and I didn't pray about it.

And then in 06, something happened.

They came out with what they call a Z06 option, which is a 427 cubic inch engine puts out 505 horsepower.

That's what tipped me over into praying, actually processing the plan of God.

I began to pray and other times I don't know what your perspective is I know you wouldn't let me have a Harley, and so I'm not going to go any further with this until I know that.

I know I'm not doing anything.

I am buying a few magazines, lord, but anyway, I had to familiarize myself with the product.

And so 2006 went by, most of 2007 went by, and finally Gladys and I were on a little trip and we were staying in the hotel overlooking the ocean.

It was a Pacific Ocean, so it's unlike Galveston, because there's no humidity and there's no mosquitoes.

It's just perfect.

You know, go out on the balcony, had my Bible.

It was cool, it was wonderful, and I think it was like January of 07, I think it was.

And I'm just out there.

I wouldn't think about a Corvette, I wouldn't think about anything.

I'm just spending time with the Lord, thanking him.

And I started turning my Bible.

The wind was blowing, so it's having to, you know, fight the wind, turn my Bible to where I was going to start reading.

And so sweetly, just in my spirit, he said you can have that Corvette, you can have that Corvette.

So I started looking at 05.

I started praying in 06.

And here it is, early 07.

And the Holy Ghost said you can have that Corvette.

And I just my eyes filled with tears, I said well, thank you Lord, I believe I receive a 06 Corvette, thank you.

So I start looking, I start, I start now.

I'm starting to motivate, I'm starting to find what is it that I'm buying, how can I buy it?

And I found that you can't buy them.

They're in short supply and by this time you know it's time to order the 08s, and I'm a little late, and so the only way to get one is order one.

They had a couple in town.

They were asking 10 grand over list over, msrp 10,000 over.

And what color are they?

They're either black or red.

There's no imaginative color.

They had some beautiful colors.

They weren't in those beautiful colors.

They're black With a black interior.

Well, I don't want a black interior.

I've already had black interior.

I don't want black interior, I want the other kind.

They had some other.

So anyway, I thought how am I going to order?

So I found a dealer in New Hampshire online.

They're going to give me a discount off of list 3000 off the list price for an order, and I made the deal.

I ordered it completely loaded with every option available, including the option of taking museum delivery.

What does that mean?

It means the Corvette is made in the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, kentucky, and they ship it across the street to the Corvette museum where the museum keepers make it ready for you.

They polish it, clean it, get it already like a dealer would make it ready, and then you can go and visit the museum and look at your purchase and you can go across the street for a VIP tour of the Corvette plant.

And so I ordered this thing and I'm thanking God every day.

I'm thanking God.

See, this is this is just what.

How much more?

I mean, see, you've got to get to the.

Well, you're just talking about that.

Well, you know we live in this world.

You know what God wants to give you good things.

It's his good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

If you have a need, you can get the need met.

But what if you have a little bit more?

But how about a desire?

It's not just the need that he wants to supply, he will supply what you desire.

When you give everything to him and you wait on him and he says okay, then then you know why can't you have something a little nicer if it just makes you happy?

And so, see, I didn't have to settle that.

There was a time in my life that I wasn't ready to receive.

I couldn't receive.

Remember, brother Mark talked about sitting at the table in front of all these preachers with Brother Copeland one day and he was kind of joking about a jet.

He said, well, those jets, boy, da, da, da da.

He said well, you need to quit joking about it and receive it.

God told me that he'd been trying to get you a jet for the last two years and you won't receive it.

He said, oh man, right in front of all these preachers, you just rebuke me in front of all these preachers.

See, I like preachers like that that will tell me the truth when I need to hear it.

That's the kind of relationships that I have, that I don't have a bunch of yes, people around me to tell me what I want to hear.

And so so I had settled that I could receive something like this.

When God said I could have it, I believed I received it and started working on it.

And so, finally, the day came.

I got a call and your car is ready.

And Larry, or where are you Larry?

Larry was man, he's with me on that.

He's a Corvette guy.

He's got one right now out there Beautiful green C5, 4, 4, c4.

He likes 4's and they're pretty too.

They're all pretty.

But anyway, he got with me and so I asked John Dyer.

I said, john, would you possibly fly me to Bowling Green?

So, john Dyer, we got in his twin and we flew from Houston Hook's Airport to Bowling Green, kentucky, and I had Jay and James with me and you know, we landed there.

I could hardly wait for the next day.

The next day they had a schedule for the tour before I could see my car, but Larry wasn't on the trip.

But Larry, let me know by email.

He said I see your car, it's online and I see a picture and I know it's your car.

See, it was the first Z06 in Jet Stream Blue and they had it sitting out.

There was the first one in the country they made Because Jet Stream Blue was a new blue color and they ran out of that paint.

Right now there's shortages of chips.

See, these shortages go on all the time, and so the lower number of cars they make, the more critical their supplies are.

Also, the interior they ran out of that orange.

I have a burnt orange inset on my black interior, but it was mostly orange inside.

Well, a dealer won't order that.

It's too bold, it's too.

Oh no, I can't do that, I've got to have black interior.

No, I want orange, even though I'm an Aggie.

I went ahead and it didn't have maroon.

I would have ordered maroon.

Anyway, everybody say every option.

So we fly up there and we have to wait and go on the tour.

Oh man, that tour was amazing to see all those Corvettes, all these Corvettes up on the ceiling and then they're going down and then they mate with the frame and then the engines put in.

And then I got to drive one just like mine off of, except it had a black interior.

I got to drive it the last few feet off of the assembly line.

And so the guys are over there with lights and their white gloves and they're looking at every little thing about it.

So finally it came time for me to go across the street, go pick up my car, and it was sitting behind gold ropes in the main lobby.

Everybody was just slobbering over it, they were looking at it and they couldn't believe it.

They just that same.

That color was so beautiful and the interior had the door open behind the gold ropes.

All of that caved in.

By the way.

A few years later, all of that caved in.

They lost a bunch of their antique Corvettes and destroyed a bunch of stuff.

They had some kind of washout underneath them.

I'm so glad that didn't happen in 2008.

Thank God it didn't.

Are y'all is this taking too long, or are you just?

I'm just.

What I want to do is get you to take the limits off what God wants to do.

Some of you've been believing for a long time, but you really haven't been believing right.

Let's get, let's let's find out where where we have had some misguidance in how we're approaching something, and and sometimes it takes good it's good just to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and say well, look, god, I believed as far as I could, but I just wasn't believing correctly.

Lord, I want to redo this.

You know I want to redo on this.

You know we can redo.

You know God's merciful.

He is good, he's got great things laid up for us.

Praise God.

And he's waiting for us with faith filled prayers to make demands on what belongs to us already.

Come on, lift your hands and receive the power of prayer.

Praise.